On-Board Hydrogen production and its supplement as a fuel.

Project Abstract / Summary : We are introducing a new aluminum-based hydrogen generation system that uses aluminum, water and sodium hydroxide solution as its fuel. This reaction produces hydrogen at a higher rates that are enough to satisfy the different load conditions of engine. This system will produce and supply hydrogen to the engine according to the need of the engine and hence eliminating the problem of hydrogen storage. In future this system can be used to run engine for multiple uses like for domestic power generation, for running a power plant or simply for running a vehicle by considering all the safety parameters of human being.
Comparison with existing system:
For finding out whether our system is cost effective or not we
Compare it by ford’s 12-passenger E-450 shuttle bus
Considering its fuel consumption be 1 liter for 4 km. For 60.25 liter of petrol it will run for 240km
Cost of 60.25 liter petrol will be INR 3916.25
But by using hydrogen by this method net saving will be of INR 1489.22 for each 240 km
Thus if a bus has a running of 2000km in a month then our system has a payback period of 5 months

Why did you choose to work on this project topic : The available technologies for hydrogen production are reforming of natural gas; gasification of coal and biomass; and the splitting of water by water-electrolysis, photo-electrolysis, photo-biological production, water splitting thermo-chemical cycle and high temperature decomposition . The principal methods for the production of hydrogen involve water-electrolysis and natural gas reforming processes.
Though the hydrogen can be produced from the above mentioned processes but still there are some issues related to the cost that has to be invested to carry out these processes. Today the production of unit of hydrogen by steam reformation or electrolysis is approximately 3-6 times more expensive than production of equivalent unit of natural gas and further these process are relatively very complex in operation also the cost of same unit of hydrogen generation by using coal gasification would cost 2.6 times of cost for generation by steam reformation .
The issues related to cost and storage of hydrogen in current technology shows need of a simple and cheap system for hydrogen production that can be used to produce hydrogen on demand continuously so that hydrogen doesn’t have to be stored and transported.
The other reason of making this project was dependance of our country for fuel on other countries

Project Category : Mechanical / Automobile / Aeronautical
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Institute/College Name: Sinhgad Institute of Technology
City: lonavala, Pune
State: Maharashtra
Participating Team From: Final Year